Rich men challenge family planning policy (China Daily) Updated: 2005-12-16 06:04
China's nouveaux riches are not only competing with each other to buy
grandiose mansions and expensive cars, their latest status symbol is a brood of
children.
Increasing numbers of wealthy people are skirting around
China's family planning policy by simply paying fines to have more children.
![China's nouveaux riches are not only competing with each other to buy grandiose mansions and expensive cars their latest status symbol is a brood of children.](xin_511202160914373156838.jpg)
The policy was enacted in the 1970's to curb a huge population explosion. In
2002 the law was amended to allow ethnic minorities to have more than one child,
and farmers to have a second child if their first was a girl. The changes were
never designed, however, to allow city residents to have multiple babies.
The recent amendments introduced fines as a means to prevent mothers from
giving birth to more than one child. However, affluent people are now simply
paying the "social maintenance fee" for a second and subsequent child.
A Beijing newspaper said it is a throwback to old attitudes that equates
large families with wealth, status and happiness.
Business tycoons and showbiz celebrities are finding a
number of ways of getting around the one-child policy. Many simply pay the fine,
which can be as high as 150,000 yuan (US$20,000) for urban dwellers or as low as
7,000 yuan (US$900) for rural residents. Some wealthy people are even emigrating
abroad for the sole purpose of having a second or third child whom they bring
back to raise in China.
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